Casino would desecrate sacred ground

It should be self-evident, as Thomas Jefferson might have said, that a casino should not be built next to the most hallowed battleground on the American continent. But unless concerned preservationists and Civil War buffs can turn back the power of the almighty dollar, a casino might become Gettysburg's newest neighbor. The Civil War Preservation Trust (to which I have given small donations for several years) and other groups thought they had defeated the casino forces when a proposed casino at another site near the Gettysburg battlefield failed to obtain a Pennsylvania license. But gambling profiteers are still eager to tie their gambling tables and slot machines to a Gettysburg address, and another proposal is before the people of Pennsylvania.

A gambling casino would desecrate the site of the largest and bloodiest battle of the Civil War, which marked a key turning point in the war. On July 1-3, 1863, Confederate forces under Robert E. Lee tried mightily but failed to dislodge Union forces under George Meade, who had captured the high ground and never relinquished it, despite concerted attacks that culminated in the legendary "Pickett's Charge," a suicidal advance across nearly a mile of open ground. More than 30,000 Americans died in those three days, and thousands more were wounded. The outpouring of grief resulted in scores of monuments to various regiments and companies who fought bravely there on both sides. The rolling Pennsylvania landscape, a comfortable drive from Washington, D.C., is embellished with those marble, bronze and granite markers, hailing heroes nearly 150 years gone. Hundreds of thousands of tourists visit the battlefield, which is maintained by the National Park Service, every year to soak up some of the solemn history of this hallowed ground. They stand at the marching off point for Pickett's charge and stare at the line of cannon in the distance and that copse of trees that Lee made their goal and wonder what could have inspired men to such suicidal courage. They stand at the spot where the 20th Maine, out of ammunition after repeated attacks by Confederates, held their position on Big Round Top in hand-to-hand combat. They look at the spot where Abraham Lincoln delivered the greatest two-minute speech in American history. No one can go to Gettysburg without being moved.

Anyone who would place a casino on the main road into the heart of the Gettysburg battlefield has no sense of history or of honor. As Lincoln said, "It is for us the living ... to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to the cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion ... ." The dead of Gettysburg did not give their lives for gambling, and no casino should taint their sacrifice.